Verbal abuse during childhood is just as harmful to mental health as physical abuse.

Lifelong effects. A study of more than 20,600 people living in England and Wales shows that violence and verbal cruelty during childhood has similar effects on a person and their well-being throughout adulthood as physical abuse.

The results of this study, published Tuesday, August 5 in the journal BMJ Open and reported by the American media CNN , indicate that a person who has suffered verbal abuse is 60% more likely to suffer from poor mental health.

“The findings suggest that childhood verbal abuse can leave scars on mental health as deep and lasting as those caused by physical abuse,” said lead study author Dr. Mark Bellis, professor of public health and behavioral sciences at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

According to this study, a person who has not experienced any physical or verbal violence during childhood has a 16% chance of experiencing poor mental health. A victim of physical violence, on the other hand, has a 22.4% chance of experiencing mental ill-health as an adult. This figure rises to 23.8% for victims of verbal violence.

Finally, a person exposed to both verbal and physical violence during childhood sees their chances of experiencing distress during their adult life increase, i.e. 29.1%.

Concretely, research shows that the more a person is exposed to violence during childhood, whether physical or verbal, the more likely they are to "never or rarely feel optimistic", "never or rarely feel useful" or "never or rarely feel relaxed" in adult life.

This is an important observation, because while physical violence against children has halved, from 20% among those born between 1950 and 1979 to 10% among those born in 2000 or later, verbal cruelty has increased. From 11.9% for those born before 1950, this figure rises to nearly 20% for those born from the year 2000 onwards.

Researchers therefore warn about the prevention of child violence and believe that the fight against violence against children must also include verbal cruelty and not just corporal punishment.

The study calls for greater consideration of the consequences of verbal violence in worsening the health problems of those affected.